A decision on the site for a $5.5 million wind turbine tower just west of town has been delayed a month, according to Geneseo's mayor. In June, the Geneseo City Council voted 5 to 3 in favor of negotiating a contract with Johnson Controls to build the 2.5 megawatt wind turbine. The council also approved acceptance of a $1.385 million Illinois Clean Energy Grant for the tower's installation. But a few obstacles came before the council. During the June meeting, one of the people who would live next to the tower said he didn't want to see it from his backyard.

Montemuro wants to build a 28-foot turbine to generate electricity for his store and for his home. He figures the turbine will cost about $30,000, but he expects to recoup that through electricity savings and a reimbursement from a state incentive program, such as the Pennsylvania Energy Development Authority, which encourages the use of alternative energy sources.

Melancthon Township Council has accepted an "amenities agreement" with Canadian Hydro Developers, and has voted to support the company's position on the Melancthon II wind farm project at the Ontario Municipal Board pre-hearings and main event. The double-barrelled motion carried in an unrecorded vote at the last meeting of the council. The decision does not affect zoning, as that issue is before the OMB.

GENESEO - The city could have a new landmark in coming years. Aldermen Tuesday voted to accept a $1.385 million Illinois Clean Energy Grant to help pay for a 2.5 megawatt wind turbine, to be built on the northwest side of Geneseo, outside the city limits.

LIVINGSTON - Some local governments in Montana are having second thoughts about entering the wind energy business despite the incentive of interest-free financing from the federal government. While some cities and counties remain enthusiastic about the idea, others are bailing out. Almost half remain uncommitted and the clock is ticking. The Park County Commission dropped out of the program this month, saying it involved too many unknowns. "It doesn't look like something we ought to hang our hat on right now," Commissioner Jim Durgan said. Similar sentiments reign in Carbon County.

Mayor Herb Arbuckle and other members of the council expressed concern that land taken up by wind turbines could have detrimental effects on economic growth and development, property values because of obstructed views, noise or light pollution and possible electronic and radio interference that could affect emergency radio signals. "We've got to look 20 to 30 years down the road when we consider this," Arbuckle said. Council member Dick Jones said looking down the road, he can see the turbines harming residential property development west of town.

Local and federal officials are hoping to head off future encroachment issues as the expanding wind energy industry creeps toward the Dyess Air Force Base flight path. U.S. Rep. Randy Neugebauer, R-Lubbock, is hosting a meeting at Dyess Tuesday for representatives from the city of Abilene, Taylor and Nolan counties, the Department of Defense, the Department of Energy and the Federal Aviation Administration. At stake is the future coexistence of two major economic players in the Abilene area - Dyess and the burgeoning wind energy industry.

Marshland St James is an isolated, functional, centre-less village, little more than a ribbon of houses along a country road surrounded by farms. In the far west of Norfolk, close to the borders with Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire, it is a place that locals describe as "bandit country". It is not a place you expect an issue of national importance to find its focus. But on Monday, just a few days before the government released its white paper on energy, a local farmer was found dead in a drainage canal close to his home. A statement from his family linked his death to a battle over wind farms that has torn the village apart.

With Edgartown in the lead, the Vineyard is poised to join with Nantucket and Cong. William Delahunt in pushing for the establishment of an offshore energy zone to harness wind, wave and possibly tidal energy from waters between the two Islands. The move is a first step toward the goal of making the Islands energy independent.

MONTPELIER - The Senate very narrowly approved a tax Tuesday on revenue earned by Entergy, the company that owns the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant, to pay for a program to reduce the use of heating fuels in the state. The "all fuels" efficiency program to help pay for weatherization and other heating fuel saving measures has become one of the most contentious issues in the Statehouse this year. The tax was passed along with preliminary approval of the Senate's entire energy and anti-global warming bill Tuesday was by a vote of 18-11. The real fight, however, was whether to accept the proposed 35 percent tax on revenue gained by Entergy from the operation of the Vermont Yankee plant. That attempt passed by a 15-14 vote.

The Physical Plant is looking to turn blustery days into university dollars. University officials have applied for a $30,000 grant to investigate the feasibility of building a 2.5-megawatt wind generator on campus, said Justin Harrell, a Physical Plant electrical engineer. If awarded the grant from the Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation, the university could begin studying the possibility of building a wind turbine as early as this summer, Harrell said.

VALE - Wind turbines reaching 400 feet into the air are not a normal sight along the high desert plains of Eastern Oregon, but as the federal government continues to provide enticing grant options to entrepreneurs in the state, that form of clean energy technology could become more common locally. One case in point is a recent decision by the United States Department of Agriculture regarding a grant for a feasibility study for a 10 megawatt family wind farm in Vale.

The Board of Supervisors moved closer on Tuesday to a wind energy ordinance that could attract renewable energy businesses to Floyd County. The Supervisors passed the first reading of an ordinance which would offer a tax exemption to new wind farms or turbines. Wind energy producers would receive a tax exemption on a 20-year, sliding scale. The first year of operation the owner would be taxed on zero percent of the net acquisition costs, adding five percent until year seven, when the rate would stay at 30 percent. No comments were given during a public hearing on the ordinance.

The Montana Public Service Commission voted 4-1 Jan. 29 to oppose a Montana Senate bill that would allow a renewable energy cooperative to move forward with plans to create two wind power generation sites, the PSC chairman told the Senate Natural Resources and Energy Committee. In a note of explanation, the author of SB337, Russ Doty, wrote, “This legislation is needed to allow the Green Electricity Buying Co-op (GEBCO) to own the windmills that it has received authorization to finance with zero interest Clean Renewable Energy Bonds (CREBs). Without this legislation the $31.7 million in CREBs authorizations will be forfeited and likely reassigned to other states.” Mr. Doty is the executive director of the Billings-based co-op. The co-op plans to use the bonds to build two 20-megawatt wind farms in Montana. One site would be south of Fort Peck on the Towe Farm in McCone County. The other facility would sit near Molt Road in Yellowstone County, a press release said.

Madison County leaders turned down a six-figure payment from the developer of a 19-windmill project in three southern townships, citing a need for a comprehensive county policy on how to handle payments from windmill developers. The county had been negotiating a payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreement with Citizens Airtricity Energy, the company that plans to build a 28.5-megawatt windmill farm in Eaton, Stockbridge and Madison this summer. The county’s share of the PILOT would have been $500 per megawatt, or $14,250 per year. The payments would continue for 16 years and increase with inflation. The county estimated the total payments would have been nearly $250,000After three hours of discussion Tuesday morning, supervisors instead voted to forgo the money. The county’s $500 share . Madison County’s portion of sales tax to stay 4 percent Page B-2 will be split among the other taxing jurisdictions, which will now share $8,000 per megawatt. The windmill debate has dominated conversations among county leaders for the past two weeks. Some vocal opponents said the county shouldn’t have been a part of the negotiations at all, since previous windmill projects in Fenner and Madison were built without the county taking a portion of the windmill payments.

Rep. Jon Nelson believes a plan for the dismantling of inactive North Dakota wind farms is comparable to coal mine land reclamation, but the Wolford Republican couldn’t muster enough lawmakers who agreed. The North Dakota House on Friday defeated, 57-34, a bill to give the state Public Service Commission broad power to write rules for the decommissioning of wind farms, including authority to require companies to post a bond to cover the expense. Rep. Mike Brandenburg, R-Edgeley, argued the bill was unnecessary and would add extra cost for an industry that is finding its legs in North Dakota. The American Wind Energy Association rates the state as No. 1 in wind-power generation potential. “At this point in the infancy of these wind generation (projects), this is not the time to put more … burdensome costs that would take us further out of the market,” Brandenburg said.

Proponents call it the biggest new idea in wind energy in Nebraska in decades: wind turbines dotting the hills, harnessing wind for the financial benefit of members of a local community. A plan in front of a legislative committee would offer a sales tax exemption for community-based energy development groups — co-ops of Nebraska residents, tribal councils and even school districts could qualify. The exemption would apply to the cost of materials used to manufacture, install, construct, repair or replace wind turbines that convert wind to usable energy. It’s “a good investment in Nebraska’s rural communities,” said state Sen. Don Preister of Bellevue, who introduced the bill (LB648). The Legislature’s Revenue Committee held a public hearing on Thursday.

President Bush might be talking about alternative energy, but he's not giving many types of green energy sources a financial boost. Bush's $2.9 trillion budget proposal released Monday includes no funding for geothermal technology, a prominent industry in Nevada, or for hydropower research and development. Bush's proposal also trims funding for wind energy to $40 million, nearly a 10 percent drop from last year's request. The 2008 request keeps funding levels stagnant for solar energy development: $148.3 million. But some alternative energy industries are winners under the president's budget plan. Biomass, hydrogen technology and carbon sequestration at coal-fired power plants would see increases in funding.

Governor Joe Manchin says his new wind energy bill is all about that industry paying its fair share to the state. The bill was introduced in the state Senate Friday and Manchin discussed the bill with MetroNews Monday. Manchin says, “If we are going to grow the state the way we need to it has to be a fair level playing field.” The bill would nearly eliminate the salvage rate the wind farm owners currently pay in property taxes and instead they would pay regular property tax rates. They would also be required to pay B&O Taxes like other power producing facilities. The wind farm owners could earn tax credits by investing in local community projects.

Plans for a wind farm on mountains north of Swansea have been attacked as “a major scam” by a city councillor.Ioan Richard, who represents the Mawr ward on the council, has hit out at subsidies paid to wind farms. He says the project, which he estimates will cost £80 million, will receive £110 million income over 20 years at today’s figures. “The Renewable Energy Subsidy will be £236 million from the general public who do not want this ugly scam,” said Councillor Richard. “After 20 years the turbines will be scrap - but who is laughing all the way to the bank? “These figures have all been verified at today’s rates as a major scam. “It’s high time you, the general public, sat up and realised the folly of it at your expense,” he added.